Formula One’s Turbo-Charged Engines, Then and Now

By BRAD SPURGEON

August 22, 2014

The word “brutal” often comes into discussions about a Formula One turbo racing engine: The more brutal noise of the engines of the previous turbo era compared with those of today, or the more brutal torque of any turbo engine compared with a normally aspirated engine, or the brutal handling of a turbo-powered car.

But one of the most brutal aspects of the discussion of the new turbo engines of the 2014 Formula One season is the unrelenting criticism by some fans and some of the series’ leading personalities after more than half the season has been run, and despite the fact that most fans and participants agree it has been full of exciting races.

The new environmentally friendly power units, which are 1.6-liter, 6-cylinder, turbo-charged engines with two forms of energy-recuperation devices — heat and kinetic — have been criticized for being too quiet, and also too technical for the flat-out, gas-guzzling, steroid-filled kind of racing that the series is known for.

But as Formula One returns to two of its most engine-friendly and historic circuits in the next two races — after Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium this weekend comes the Italian Grand Prix at Monza — the question is, How exactly does the previous turbo era compare with the one that began this year?

The previous turbo era ran from the introduction in 1977 of the first Renault turbo engine to 1988, the last season before turbos were banned because they were too powerful and dangerous, and too expensive.

But the times and technology have changed, and as part of a plan to downsize engines and add energy-recuperation systems, turbo-charged engines were required this year on all cars, with big differences from the past. Their power, unlike the 1,000 horsepower of the 1980s, was limited to about 600 horsepower, with an additional 160 horsepower coming from the electrical systems. Improvements in aerodynamics, suspension, electronics and other aspects of the cars account for the fact that the speed keeps advancing.

Alain Prost, the four-time world driving champion, who raced in the 1980s and 1990s and who now works as an ambassador for the Renault engine company that provides several teams with engines — Ferrari and Mercedes are the other engine providers — pointed out that the clamor about the engine noise was magnified this season because, unlike in the first era, all teams were now suddenly required to use the quieter turbo engine.

“At the time there were V8s, there was the V12 Ferrari, there was the V8 Cosworth,” he said of that first turbo era. “You had two cars with turbos that first year. So you don’t notice the difference that much, and when a car passed you could say, ‘Oh, it’s the turbo.’ You could tell by the sound of the engine which car passed. People did not talk about the sound because it happened slowly, and people got used to it bit by bit.”

By 1980, the turbo had set a new standard for the companies and teams, and in 1981, Ferrari built a turbo engine, and by the middle of the decade, most teams were using turbos.

But the original turbo engines were at least twice as loud as today’s, partly because there were two turbos and two exhausts, whereas today there are just one of each, and also because today’s regulations require harnessing energy from the exhaust for later use, which reduces the noise of the exhaust.

The new engines also have two forms of energy-recuperation devices — harvesting power from the brakes and heat from the exhaust — and that has made turbo engines fundamentally different.

The technology has advanced so much that the new engines are tiny compared with the old ones, but more powerful. They are also small in order to allow room for the engine and the electronic systems.

“It’s a very high-power electric machine, running at up to 125,000 r.p.m., packaged into a race car where space, volume, mass, cooling, is never abundant,” Andy Cowell, the director of the Mercedes racing engine program, said of the turbocharger. “And bringing all of that together as a completely new piece of architecture into a race car, that’s been one of those journeys that two years ago we were looking at some of the sizes and the shapes and the natural ways of putting it into the race car, ‘That’s ugly; how are we going to go racing?”’

Improved electronics and new knowledge of how to build a turbo engine mean that a big negative aspect of the turbo engines from the 1980s has been overcome: the lag between when a driver pushes the accelerator and when the power kicks in.

“The lag got better and better through that period of time, quite dramatically better,” said Martin Brundle, who raced in the 1980s and 1990s and who is now a commentator on British television. “But you still anticipated when you needed the power a little bit — except in qualifying when they closed the wastegates off.”

“You had this surplus of power and this torque,” he added. “They were brutal. It tied the car in knots basically, because the chassis had not evolved to have that sort of 1,250, 1,300 horsepower we had in qualifying and 850, 900 in the race. So they were a handful; they were moving around a lot. You could never fully, you couldn’t relax and trust them, you drove them, even on the straights.”

But Brundle said that the relative brutality of today’s cars, compared with those of last year with the normally aspirated V8 engines, is exactly what has made the season more exciting to watch. The cars throughout the ’90s and 2000s had become more driveable, and the drivers needed less skill to keep them on the track.

“What I like to see today is that they’ve got a surplus of torque over grip,” he said. “So the drivers have to apply the throttle. There’s a skill. There are times, like with traction control in the V10 in the early ’90s, where the skill disappeared because you just floored the throttle and let the electronics do the work. And I think it’s the saving grace of this year.”

The 1980s engines were not nearly as reliable as today’s. They would break down constantly, because they were at the limit of the technology and the manufacturers were not as involved as they are today. Before the 2014 season started, there had been predictions that more than half the grid would drop out with broken engines. But the engineers have managed to make engines that are almost as reliable as their normally aspirated, V8 predecessors.

The new engines consume 30 percent less fuel than last year’s normally aspirated engines and are also much more efficient than their turbo predecessors.

They also hark back to the older era in terms of the giant steps in development that drivers faced in the past.

“When I get into my car of 1983 and when I get in the one from 1993, in 10 years there was an evolution that was incredible,” Prost said. “But from 1993 to 2012, in 20 years, you have the impression, nevertheless, not of driving the same car, but it is not that different.”

He said there had been an optimizing of all aspects of the car over that time — of the details, the ergonomics and, especially, the electronics.

And despite the criticism, Brundle said that, as a driver, choosing between eras is easy.

“I think that what we have now is better. I would take today over the ’80s, all day long, because they just look like good fun to drive,” he said. “As a driver you spend all of your life trying to make a better racing car. Every aspect of what you do. They don’t debrief for hours for fun. They debrief because they want to go faster.

“You’re looking for perfection. And all of a sudden you can jump into a car like they have now, which for us, Alain and myself, would be far closer to perfection than we ever thought possible.”